One of the biggest recent tattoo news stories was about an ancient man and a new discovery about his tattoos. In the excellent report, "Scan finds new tattoos on 5300-year-old Iceman," Aaron Deter-Wolf discusses how a new examination of Otzi the Iceman found a previously unrecorded group of tattoos consisting of "four parallel lines between 20 and 25 mm long and are invisible to the naked eye," which researchers have added to complete the catalog of all of Otzi's tattoos. As Aaron notes, "While the different combinations of lines
in Otzi's tattoos may have held some underlying symbolic meaning, it
appears that their function was primarily medicinal or therapeutic." Further to this, he discusses Dr. Lars Krutak's writings on Otzi:

In his 2012 book Spiritual Skin: Magical Tattoos and Scarification, anthropologist Dr. Lars Krutak documents an experiment in which Colin Dale of Skin & Bone Tattoo
in Copenhagen determined that hand-poked tattoos applied to acupuncture
points using a bone needle "could produce a sustained therapeutic
effect," successfully relieving ailments such as rheumatism, tinnitus,
and headaches. [...]

Krutak consulted Gillian Powers
(M.Ac., L.Ac.), a licensed acupuncturist in Washington, DC, who
reported that acupuncture points near the newly-recorded tattoos "can be
used to treat the symptoms associated with whipworms (abdominal pain,
nausea/vomiting, diarrhea) and gallstones (abdominal pain,
nausea/vomiting, etc.), as well as breathing issues." Powers also noted
that the location of the new tattoos is in close proximity to the
gallbladder itself, and therefore could have additional effects on
gallstone pain.

For more on tattoo history, there's a piece recently published, entitled "The Last Tattooed Women of Kobane," which explores the stories behind photojournalist Jodi Hilton's portraits of women from Kobane, Syria, (shown above) and their regional facial tattoos called "deq." It's a fascinating Q&A. Here's a taste:

Many women reported being tattooed by a "nomad" or a "gypsy woman," and
these traveling tattoo artists may well have dispersed the tradition.
But some of the designs are unique, possibly referring to pre-Islamic
religions that are, in some way, still in the hearts of some Kurdish
people.

The tattoos are made from soot and breast milk and sometimes gallbladder
liquid from a sheep or goat. The design is drawn on the skin and then a
series of small punctures are made with a sewing needle. Then the
mixture is spread over the design, which scabs over and leaves the
tattoo. Most are done between the ages of eight and twelve. One woman
even tattooed her own breasts, encircling the nipples with a thin round
line.

"To me, this number was my parents' grave stone. You do not walk around with your grandparents' or parents' grave stone on your back to show 'look, I had my father, my mother, they died here, here is the stone!' For me, symbolically, that's what it was.
"And so I decided to take it off, to take it off, but only if I could keep it."

Buzyn kept the piece of his tattooed skin in his wallet for decades. Then one day it was stolen. He was devastated. He even thought about re-tattooing himself.
"I had it removed at first because I didn't want it to be a part of me. I wanted to have it by my side. But many years later I realised that the number was a part of a memory that had great significance."

Cosmopolitan mag posted on a beautiful, tear-inducing video (below) featuring Freedom Tattoo, a program in Poland that helps women who were once incarcerated cover their prison tattoos with more artful ones. As one women says, after replacing her crude handpoked work with beautiful roses, "I am a woman. Now I can take another step, and this is fantastic because now I don't have to be locked up anymore in that gray world that held me back." The video made me cry, but I highly recommend taking a look as a reminder at how wonderfully transformative tattoos can be.

There are few things that I love more than the timbre of a Glaswegian accent and the amazing production-value of RadioLab... So when they focused on James Dickson and his discovery of Otzi the "Tattooed Iceman," I was in podcast heaven.

While they don't spend a lot of time focusing on his extensive tattooing, it's a fascinating piece about forensic archeology (and a reminder that tattoos aren't just for "sailors and bikers").

I would encourage you to stream the podcast here and also read their accompanying blog-post here.

To cleanse that frightening bunch outta ya mind, check out the exciting tattoo artistry of Amanda Wachob of DareDevil Tattoo, who experiments with abstract forms and conceptual design but can also do a solid, clean traditional tattoo. I met Amanda at our launch party Friday and she told me about an abstract tattoo project she's working on -- also mentioned on DevilCity Press -- where 8-10 people will be chosen to get a large tattoo, free. More details on that coming up later this week.

Amanda's conceptual art got me thinking of the lines and dots found on the oldest recorded tattooed person: Otzi the Iceman; however, a recent news item discusses how his tattoos have proved to be medicinal, not aesthetic. The article explains:

"There are groups of one, two, three, four and
seven tattoo lines parallel to the longitudinal axis of the body, and
so they're parallel to Chinese acupuncture meridians." The
cross-shaped tattoo on his knee, and another one on his left ankle,
also lay over Chinese acupuncture "trigger points," the researchers
believe. Strengthening their argument is the fact that the soot-made
markings are located on parts of the iceman's body not typical for
tattoo displays, diminishing the notion that they served a more
ornamental, aesthetic function.

But this prejudice is not so surprising after also reading weekly stories of idiots who use the art as a gimmick like this guy who got a tattoo to win a PalmPre phone. Of course, with the cost of the tattoo (and subsequent lasering I'm sure), he coulda just bought the PalmPre and been spared our mockery. Mock, mock, mock.